912 Veterinary Obstetrics 



The eclampsia of woman occurs most frequently, or in approxi- 

 mately 50% of the cases, during birth. About 25% occur before 

 parturition, and the other 2^'/( after childbirth. The history of 

 the date of attack of eclampsia in woman and of parturient paresis 

 in the cow are somewhat alike in so far as the occurrence of cases 

 before, during and after birth are concerned, but the percentages 

 of cases during these various epochs are not at all alike. Very 

 few attacks of parturient paresis occur in the cow during preg- 

 nancy or labor, and almost all of them during the puerperal 

 state. 



Eclampsia in woman is characterized by sudden and severe 

 spasms, which endure for a few minutes, to be followed by a 

 pause and later a recurrence of the spasms. The pause is some- 

 times characterized by deep coma. The disease usually appears 

 very suddenly, without warning, though in some cases there may 

 be premonitory symptoms of unrest, headache and nervous twitch- 

 ings. • Then follows dilation of the pupil, with loss of conscious- 

 ness accompanied by clonic and tonic spasms. The jaws are 

 tightly closed, sometimes severely w^ounding the tongue. The 

 temperature is usually high, and tends to become more elevated 

 as the spasms are more severe. 



Upon post-mortem examination, the changes which are ob- 

 served can scarcely be considered as characteristic of the disease, 

 or as indicating the essential pathology of it. 



The symptoms of parturient paresis in the cow admittedly 

 differ widely in a general way from those seen in the eclampsia 

 of woman. This leads Harms to remark that a comparison of 

 the symptoms of eclampsia in woman with this malady would 

 cause anyone who had ever seen a case of milk fever in the cow 

 to at once conclude that they were two wholly distinct maladies. 

 Other veterinary obstetrists believe that the two maladies are 

 essentially identical, -in which opinion we concur. The two 

 maladies appear at a similar date as related to parturition, the 

 true pathology of neither has been satisfactorily determined, and 

 post-mortem changes which can properly be considered as the 

 basic lesions of the disease are wanting. 



In .some domestic animals, especially in the mare, bitch and .sow, 

 it is not rare to observe a parturient eclampsia which, in history, 

 symptoms, course and termination, is quite parallel to that ob- 

 served in woman. There are present similar tonic and clonic 



